Overview

Initial Impression: UOB PRVI Miles stands out as a compelling choice for frequent travelers in Southeast Asia, offering generous rewards on regional spending and a suite of travel perks.

Benchmarking

UOB PRIVI Miles is well-suited for individuals who frequently travel and seek to maximize their mileage accrual through everyday spending. All around, it has the best points earn structure of any card within its category. This is the main driver behind its higher score relative to peers. However, it lags behind in terms of the other perks –namely lounge access.

Earn Mechanism

UOB PRVI Miles points system is relatively straightforward –largely focused on offering a higher-than-market points/miles earn rate as opposed to extremely high rates in a given category. This makes UOB PRVI mile especially useful for the users that simply “don’t want to care” which card they use for every transaction.

• Base Earning Rate: Earn 1 UOB Reward Point for every 15 baht spend
• ASEAN Spending Bonus: 1 UOB Reward Point for every 12 baht spend (Note: this is limited to only spending in Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia)

You can see how this earn mechanism works in the examples below:

There is no general cap on bonus points you can earn on this UOB PRVI Miles. However, do take note that you will earn UOB points on up to 200,000 baht spent at supermarkets per billing cycle. While this is indeed a constraint, it is far from restrictive. To exceed this, you will need over 2.4 million baht spending at supermarkets over the course of one year.

Maximum Spending Eligible for Points 

UOB stands for having one of the widest ranges of airline partners to transfer UOB points. 

Note: For ease of comparison, all examples would refer to Thai Airways ROP miles unless otherwise stated.

Based on the points earn rate, we can infer the following miles earn rate for UOB PRVI Miles:

Getting Cashback

UOB PRVI Miles card does not allow you to directly convert your UOB points to cashback. While there may be occasional campaigns, they are unlikely to beat the value you’ll get from converting to partner frequent flyer programs.

When you use a credit card overseas, your purchases are charged in a foreign currency and then converted to Thai Baht. This conversion comes with a foreign exchange (FX) spread or fee—a hidden cost many cardholders overlook.

UOB PRVI Miles FX fees are right on par with all other cards. While you can somewhat offset the spread with the preferential UOB points earn rate when spending in select ASEAN currencies: SGD, MYR, SGD, and IDR. While it may help to offset some of the FX cost, it is unlikely to fully cover the FX fees charged by UOB. Here's a breakdown of the charges:

• Currency Conversion Fee: Foreign Currency Conversion Fee of ~2% on top of the Visa/Mastercard spread.
• Exchange Spread: This refers to Visa’s spread that is built into their respective rates. This typically stands at ~1%.

For example, you spend 30,000 baht on an overseas trip.

Lounge Access

UOB PRVI Miles does offer lounge access, although the conditions to access this perk can be rather restrictive: you must be flying with Thai Airways out of Suvarnabhumi Airport. Another condition that UOB places on this perk is that you must have accumulated at least 200,000 baht in annual spending on the UOB PRVI miles card. While this is achievable, averaging to just over 16,600 baht per month, the condition feels unnecessary given its limited use case AND the fact that you need to fly with Thai Airways to even access it.

Now, the next question may be “what lounges can I use in Bangkok”? For that, we’ve compiled a list of lounges available for PriorityPass holders at Suvarnabhumi Airport:

Other Perks

Where UOB PRVI Miles may lack in lounge access perks, it (kind of) makes up for it with other perks. UOB PRVI miles offers airport limousine services (BKK, DMK) up to 2 times per year for users. However, as with the lounge access, this is only unlocked with a minimum accumulated annual spend of 500,000 baht. 

Eligibility Criteria

To apply for the UOB PRVI Miles, you must meet specific eligibility criteria based on nationality, income, and employment status. Here's a breakdown of the requirements:

A. Ordinary Requirements:

Thai Nationals

Foreigner

B. Alternative Requirements:

No officially published alternative requirements have been announced by UOB. You can contact UOB directly regarding the possibility of using your AUM or fixed deposits as collateral for UOB credit cards.

Annual Fee

The annual fee for UOB PRVI Mile is extremely steep. However, unlike UOB’s more premium cards, a waiver condition has been officially published. While it may not be so easy to reach (as is the case with many KBank cards), it is reasonable at 300,000 baht annual spend. 

Primary Card

Supplementary Card

Perhaps the biggest perk is that there is no fee charged for supplementary UOB PRVI Mile cards.

UOB PRVI Miles supplementary cards do allow points to be pooled into the primary cardholder’s account. This means all spending across both the main and supplementary cards contributes to a single reward point balance. Pooling points from UOB PRVI Miles supplementary cards is great because it helps you accumulate miles faster and simplifies redemption by consolidating all spending into one account.

For example, if both you and your spouse spend ฿15,000 per month, you’ll earn points as if you spent ฿30,000—reaching travel or cashback rewards much quicker.